Caring for your Mental Health During Election Season

Do you notice increased stress during election seasons? I certainly do and recently I joined a panel on "This is Nashville" to discuss the topic. You can listen to the whole show here:

A few tips...

When our news feeds are inundated with polarizing political messages it can become overwhelming. We may need to sift through multiple heated debates to find that recipe we were searching for or a picture of our friend's kids on their first day of school. Sometimes disengaging from media content all together is necessary in order to protect ourselves but usually a shift in how we engage with content is enough.

I encourage you to consider how much time you are interacting with visual stimuli and try decreasing or limiting the time if you are feeling distressed or overwhelmed. Reading the news as opposed to watching it can help to decrease the intensity of dysregulation. 

Political discussions with people we care about can be difficult. If you find yourself in a hard conversation I encourage you to check in internally.

Notice any strong feelings coming up and practice asking yourself, "Am I unsafe or am I uncomfortable?" Are you in an environment in which people can have hard conversations while maintaining physical and emotional safety? Attacks on personal character, name calling, and yelling are not conducive to understanding. Utilizing nonviolent communication techniques during conflict is helpful.

If you are noticing increased mental health distress during election season I encourage you to talk about it with a therapist. We are here to navigate these polarizing times with you. With a bit of support, we can do hard things.